BHUBANESWAR: In a great relief to farmers, the state government has designated unseasonal rain as a state-specific disaster. A proposal of the Revenue and Disaster Management department was approved by CM Mohan Charan Majhi on Thursday.
This decision will enable farmers to receive assistance from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) in case of crop damage due to unseasonal rain. A maximum 10 per cent of the annual allocation of SDRF can be utilised for this purpose, providing financial relief to affected farmers, chief minister’s office (CMO) said.
In December last year, unseasonal rains damaged crops on 22,791 hectare of land, affecting approximately 6.66 lakh farmers in the state. The chief minister declared this as a state-specific disaster and provided Rs 291 crore assistance to farmers as agricultural input subsidy. Now, unseasonal rain will be a state-specific disaster allowing farmers to receive aid from the SDRF for crop damage.
With this declaration, the state now recognises lightning, heatwave, whirlwind, tornado, heavy rains and floods (in specific circumstances), boat accidents during non-flood period, drowning, snakebite and unseasonal rains as state-specific disasters. Additionally, the central government has declared 12 disasters.